2) Continue to expand the "Geo for All" initiative

This initiative is led by Suchith Anand.

In September 2011, the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) and the International Cartographic Association (ICA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the aim of developing on a global basis collaboration opportunities for academia, industry and government organizations in open source GIS software and data. The MoU aims to provide expertise and support for the establishment of Open Source Geospatial Laboratories across the world for supporting development of open-source geospatial software, open data, open standards training and expertise. ISPRS joined this initiative in 2014. The motto of Geo for All Lab initiative is "Geo For All".Central to "Geo for All" mission is the belief that knowledge is a public good and Open Principles in Education will provide great opportunities for everyone. Details at MOU_ICA.

All interested organisations must be committed to contribute to the vision outlined in the Geo for All MoU http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/MOU_ICA to develop collaboration opportunities for academia, industry and government organisations in free and open source GIS software , FOSS, open data , open access (publications) and contribute to open education in the future. All participants should contribute to Education, Research and Service for the betterment of humanity as the key guiding principle and work towards the vision of the UN Millennium Development Goals http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ for building a better world.

Current members of the Geo for All Labs Network

There are two tables, the first one for university/education/schools members ; second table for Industry ,Government and NGO partners of "Geo for All" mission, please select one accordingly.All interested organisations joining as "labs" or "partners"must be committed to contribute to the vision outlined in the Geo for All MoU http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/MOU_ICA to develop collaboration opportunities for academia, industry and government organisations in free and open source GIS software , FOSS, open data , open access (publications) and contribute to open education in the future. All participants should contribute to Education, Research and Service for the betterment of humanity as the key guiding principle and work towards the vision of the UN Millennium Development Goals http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ for building a better world.

To add a new member copy an existing table entry (uses Mediawiki syntax) and input your information. The coordinates are WGS84 decimal coordinates in format longitude, latitude; if you don't add the coordinates following this rule your institution will not show on the Geo for All Map.
The script to generate the map is available here http://www.geoforall.org/locations/update_geojson.py

Developed and supports a web-based academic paper review system for use at FOSS4G global and regional conferences (http://scholarworks.umass.edu/foss4g/); collaboration on open educational; and grant efforts to support GeoForAll's activities.

LSI, a unique center in India that promotes Open Source GeoSpatial Research and System building efforts at multiple levels since 2006. Also, an active proponent for use of Open Source and Open Technology in Educational initiatives and eGovernance Projects.

Activities of IREA in FOSS are mainly related to research in the management of geo-based data and information, and in the development of free and open software to enable storage, management, view and access to geodata.

Alessandro Oggioni

oggioni.a@irea.cnr.it

104.

HEIG-VD GIS-Lab University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland at Yverdon

The Earth Observation and Ecosystem Dynamics Lab at Aberystwyth University are world leads in the application of spatial data for environmental modelling. Work is primarily undertaken through open source software and we produce the following software tools RSGISLib, ARCSI and SPDLib while contribute to many more including GDAL, KEALib and pylidar. We run an MSc in Remote Sensing and GIS with a focus on open source tools, scripting and analysis of large datasets.

Three different computer laboratories are used for geospatial instruction at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The Cartography and GIS Laboratory pictured here is used for instruction in open-source technologies.

In Maynooth University we have two important locations for GeoForAll. The Department of Computer Science carries out a wide range of research into VGI, Citizen Science, Geo Data Quality while the National Center for Geocomputation carries out research into geostatistics, survey, LiDar, population studies, etc.

These courses aim to develop both a solid theoretical understanding and a comprehensive practical introduction to the use of Geoinformatics in the day-today life as well as in the sustainable development of the society and the environment.

Email the regonial mailing lists and contact the region chairs to start the conversation and they will be happy to discuss details and guide you through the process. The full criteria at http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Geoforall_criteria

Key requirements for joining the "Geo for All Labs" initiative

(A) Your local organisation MUST BE COMMITTED TO CONTRIBUTE to the vision outlined in the Geo for All MoU [1]http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/MOU_ICA to develop collaboration opportunities for academia, industry and government organisations in free and open source GIS software , FOSS, open data , open access (publications) and contribute to open education in the future. All participants should contribute to Education, Research and Service for the benefit and betterment of humanity as the key guiding principle and work towards the vision of the UN Millennium Development Goals [2] http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ for building a better world.

(B) At least one person at your institution or organization should have strong knowledge in geospatial information science and vision to lead this activity and to build a team of people, locally. This person should act as a liaison officer to the initiative.

(C) There should be a website established for your Open Source Geospatial Laboratory listing current research, people, and training information. This web presence will allow other nodes in the network and the general public to understand and promote your local efforts around research and teaching of open source geospatial technologies and approaches. The website should be established within a year of the lab announcement and has to be maintained at least annually.

(D) GEO4ALL MAKES A COMMITMENT TO promote the initiative widely through OSGeo, ICA and ISPRS channels to help build up collaboration opportunities for the future. We will also do a joint press release to announce the initiative and start building collaborations. A primary collaborative initiative continues to be the creation and maintenance of shared open access educational resources and/or active participation in the open source software and data development. We will also add the information of all labs in the Open Geospatial Lab network node site within OSGeo website so that all participating labs urls are added and linked.

Open Education is the simple and powerful idea that the world’s knowledge is a public good and that technology in general and the Worldwide Web in particular provide an extraordinary opportunity for everyone to share, use, and reuse knowledge. Open educational resources (OERs) are free and openly licensed educational materials that can be used for teaching and learning. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.
We especially welcome applications from universities, educational institutes, government organisations in developing countries to help develop capacity building in geospatial education by establishing Open Source Geo Labs and support Open Education initiatives worldwide.